This Georgia woman made Forbes’ Self-Made 250. Here’s how she did it.

“My husband and I bought this company in ’74 and then he passed away in ’81,” said Taylor. Starting out, “I did not know the first thing about trucking, but I learned it from the ground up.”

Credit: Estela Muñoz/AJC

Credit: Estela Muñoz/AJC

The Bennett empire includes Bennett Motor Express, Bennett International Transport, Bennett International Logistics, Bennett Distribution Services, Bennett Truck Transport and other firms.

After 52 years, it’s still a family business, with Taylor’s children and grandchildren working at the company.

But the woman-owned firm has expanded through acquisitions and organic growth, and is now the largest transporter of manufactured housing in the U.S. and one of the largest haulers of ammunition and explosives, according to Taylor, 81.

She was recognized at a celebration in Philadelphia in June for making it onto Forbes’ Self-Made 250 list, which marked the nation’s 250th birthday by spotlighting “those whose journeys began with profound disadvantage and were defined by resilience, reinvention and ambition.”

The list included famed Georgians such as Tyler Perry and Arthur Blank, as well as other prominent names from around the country, including Oprah Winfrey, LeBron James and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

Taylor said “to see some of the people that were in that list, and to know that I was in that list — that was a great honor.”

Forbes noted Taylor, at No. 224, “escaped an abusive marriage. With her second husband, she turned a struggling trucking company into a logistics powerhouse called Bennett.”

The company is known for specialized transportation, moving things like rockets, motor homes for Winnebago, cranes and buses.

It also does work for NASCAR races, erecting fencing and barriers for the race track, and using cranes to erect stands and buildings through Bennett On-Site Services Crane & Rigging.

At Bennett, “We do a lot of different things. A lot of fun things,” Taylor said.

She has a program at Bennett called “Women in the Driver’s Seat” with an advisory board to support female drivers and an annual Woman Driver of Excellence award.

Bennett also has podcasts for drivers, including a series with a chaplain.

“It’s a tough life, you know. It’s hard on families, it’s hard on marriages, and they need somebody to talk to, or they need encouragement,” Taylor said. “What we’re trying to do with these podcasts is just find ways to be encouraging to drivers, all drivers out there — and let them know kind of what’s going on in the industry.”

Credit: Estela Muñoz/AJC

Credit: Estela Muñoz/AJC

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution sat down with Taylor to ask about the truck driver shortage, what it has been like to lead a firm in a male-dominated industry and how she’s working on succession planning.

Edited for length and clarity.

Q. What would you say it takes to succeed in this line of business?

A. There’s nothing easy about it.

Safety is priority one for us. We worry about our drivers out on the road all the time.

But it gets in your blood, and you just don’t want to do anything else once you’ve kind of done this.

Every day is different. … You get to do a lot of really interesting things.

Q. Why is there a shortage of drivers?

A. If you’re a young man or young woman in school, you’re not thinking about going to work as a truck driver.

The industry is aging out. … It’s not easy being on the road all the time.

Q. Why is McDonough a good place for Bennett to have its headquarters?

A. When we first started, it was halfway between Macon and Atlanta (and) we had a lot of customers in Atlanta, we had customers in Macon. There used to be a truck stop years ago here, and we started up behind that truck stop.

Then we ended up buying this property. … We built this (headquarters) building.

There was nothing here, just cornfield. ...

The way this county is changing, it’s getting so crowded. We’d like to move, but it’s just almost impossible to pick up and do that. I’ve got a big investment here.

Q. What was it like early on without a lot of women in the business?

A. We made a lot of sales calls.

I would always go with one of the guys here (at the headquarters) or one of the regional guys. And it’s funny, you go in and make a sales call, and sometimes whoever we were calling on was comfortable talking to me, and sometimes they didn’t want to talk to me, they wanted to talk to the man — whoever was with me.

And that was fine with me. I didn’t care, as long as we got the business.

Q. How do you think about succession planning?

A. I think about it all the time.

We have somebody from outside ... that comes and works with us as a family and helps us think about that.

It’s wonderful to get to work with your family, but it also has its challenges, especially when you get into the third generation.

My kids are ready to retire. They’ve already told me they’re retiring. I, as long as I am physically able to work, I’ll probably work, because I enjoy working. I really enjoy it. I enjoy the people.

Q. What are the challenges (as you get into the third generation)?

A. They’re more about work-life balance than we were able to be.

If I have one regret, that’s my regret — is that I didn’t get to spend time with my kids growing up, because I was working all the time. And even my kids didn’t get to spend the time that they probably would have liked with their kids.

Now, my grandkids — that’s their first priority, is spending time with their kids. And I can’t fault them for that, because that’s not something that I got to do, and I regret it.

AJC Her+Story is a series in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution highlighting women founders, creators, executives and professionals. It is about building a community. Know someone the AJC should feature in AJC Her+Story? Email us at herstory@ajc.com with your suggestions. Check out more of our AJC Her+Story coverage at ajc.com/herstory.